Creating and upgrading of solutions for deployment in a virtualized computing environment

Abstract

A method of creating a software image of a solution to be deployed in a virtualized computing environment includes: retrieving a schema of the solution and determining from the schema software products that are required by the solution and software features that are required by the solution; for each software product, selecting a version of the software product to include in the solution and identifying software features provided by the selected version of the software product; and upon confirming that the selected versions of the software products provide all of the software features that are required, creating the software image of the solution that includes the selected version of each of the software products, and saving the software image in a storage device for deployment in the virtualized computing environment.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of creating a software image of a solution to be deployed in a virtualized computing environment, said method comprising:
 retrieving a schema of the solution and determining from the schema software products that are required by the solution and software features that are required by the solution, the software products including at least a first software product and a second software product; 
 selecting a version of the first software product to include in the solution; 
 for each of the other software products, which include the second software product, selecting a version of the software product to include in the solution; 
 identifying software features provided by the selected version of the first software product and by the selected versions of the other software products; and 
 upon confirming that the selected versions of the software products provide all of the software features that are required, creating the software image of the solution that includes the selected version of each of the software products, and saving the software image in a storage device for deployment in the virtualized computing environment, 
 wherein at least one of the software products is a component of a virtualization software that is installed in hosts of the virtualized computing environment, and part of the software image of the solution is to be deployed onto the hosts of the virtualized computing environment. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting a version of a dependent solution that is required by the solution; 
 retrieving a schema of the dependent solution; and 
 determining from the retrieved schema of the dependent solution, software products that are required by the dependent solution, 
 wherein the software products that are required by the solution include the software products that are required by the dependent solution. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 retrieving a schema of the first software product; and 
 determining from the retrieved schema of the first software product, a dependent software product that is required by the first software product, 
 wherein the software products that are required by the solution include the dependent software product that is required by the first software product. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 creating feature tags for each of the different software features and product tags for each version of the software products; 
 applying to each version of the software products, feature tags corresponding to software features provided by said each version of the software products; 
 applying to the solution, product tags corresponding to the selected versions of the software products required by the solution; 
 collecting all feature tags applied to the versions of the software products corresponding to the product tags that have been applied to the solution; and 
 comparing the software features corresponding to the collected feature tags against the software features that are required in confirming that the selected versions of the software products provide all of the software features that are required. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 upon confirming that the selected versions of the software products do not provide all of the software features that are required, for each software product, selecting another version of the software product to include in the solution and identifying software features provided by said another version of the software product. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the selected versions of the software products are more recent versions of the software products relative to said another versions of the software products. 
     
     
       7. A method of updating a software image of a solution that has been deployed in a virtualized computing environment in response to a proposed software upgrade, said method comprising:
 upon detecting the proposed software upgrade, retrieving a schema of the solution and determining from the schema software features that are required by the solution, and retrieving a state of the software image of the solution that has been deployed in the virtualized computing environment; 
 updating the state of the software image of the solution based on the proposed software upgrade and identifying software features provided by the updated state of the software image; and 
 upon confirming that the updated state of the software image provides all of the software features that are required, permitting the proposed software upgrade and saving the updated state of the software image in a storage device, 
 wherein the state of the software image includes a version of a first software product and a version of a second software product, which are required by the solution, and the proposed software upgrade is a proposed upgrade to the first software product, 
 
       wherein at least one of the software products is a component of a virtualization software that is installed in hosts of the virtualized computing environment, and part of the software image of the solution is deployed onto the hosts of the virtualized computing environment. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 upon confirming that the updated software image does not provide all of the software features that are required, blocking the proposed software upgrade. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 creating feature tags for each of the different software features and product tags for each version of the software products; 
 applying to each version of the software products, feature tags corresponding to software features provided by said each version of the software products; 
 applying to the solution; product tags corresponding to the versions of the software products that are in the updated software image of the solution; 
 collecting all feature tags applied to the versions of the software products corresponding to the product tags that have been applied to the solution; and 
 comparing the software features corresponding to the collected feature tags against the software features that are required in confirming that the updated software image of the solution provides all of the software features that are required. 
 
     
     
       10. A virtualized computing system comprising:
 a plurality of hosts onto each of which a virtualization software is to be deployed; 
 a management server for the hosts; and 
 a storage device, wherein 
 the management server includes a processor that is programmed to carry out a method of creating a software image of a solution to be deployed in the virtualized computing system, said method comprising: 
 retrieving a schema of the solution and determining from the schema software products that are required by the solution and software features that are required by the solution, the software products including at least a first software product and a second software product; 
 selecting a version of the first software product to include in the solution; 
 for each of the other software products, which include the second software product, selecting a version of the software product to include in the solution; 
 identifying software features provided by the selected version of the first software product and by the selected versions of the other software products; and 
 upon confirming that the selected versions of the software products provide all of the software features that are required, creating the software image of the solution that includes the selected version of each of the software products, and saving the software image in the storage device for deployment in the virtualized computing system, 
 wherein at least one of the software products is a component of the virtualization software, and part of the software image of the solution is to be deployed onto the hosts. 
 
     
     
       11. The virtualized computing system of  claim 10 , Wherein feature tags are created for each of the different software features and product tags are created for each version of the software products, and said method further comprises:
 applying to each version of the software products, feature tags corresponding to software features provided by said each version of the software products; 
 applying to the solution, product tags corresponding to the selected versions of the software products required by the solution; 
 collecting all feature tags applied to the versions of the software products corresponding to the product tags that have been applied to the solution; and 
 comparing the software features corresponding to the collected feature tags against the software features that are required in confirming that the selected versions of the software products provide all of the software features that are required. 
 
     
     
       12. The virtualized computing system of  claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
 upon confirming that the selected versions of the software products do not provide all of the software features that are required, for each software product, selecting another version of the software product to include in the solution and identifying software features provided by said another version of the software product. 
 
     
     
       13. The virtualized computing system of  claim 12 ; wherein the selected versions of the software products are more recent versions of the software products relative to said another versions of the software products. 
     
     
       14. The virtualized computing system of  claim 10 , wherein the processor of the management server is programmed to carry Gut another method comprising:
 upon detecting a proposed software upgrade, retrieving the schema of the solution and determining from the schema the software features that are required by the solution, and retrieving the software image of the solution from the storage device; 
 updating the software image of the solution based on the proposed software upgrade and identifying software features provided by the updated software image; and 
 upon confirming that the updated software image provides all of the software features that are required, permitting the proposed software upgrade and saving the updated software image in the storage device for deployment in the virtualized computing system. 
 
     
     
       15. The virtualized computing system of  claim 14 , wherein said another method further comprises:
 upon confirming that the updated software image does not provide all of the software features that are required, blocking the proposed software upgrade. 
 
     
     
       16. The virtualized computing system of  claim 14 , wherein the software image of the solution includes versions of software products that are required by the solution, and the proposed software upgrade is a proposed upgrade to one of the software products.